Women's roles in the Renaissance / Meg Lota Brown and Kari Boyd McBride.

Includes bibliographical references (pages [303]-320) and index.

Introduction : women and the Renaissance -- Ch. 1. Women and education -- Ch. 2. Women and the law -- Ch. 3. Women and work -- Ch. 4. Women and politics -- Ch. 5. Women and religion -- Ch. 6. Women and literature -- Ch. 7. Women and the arts -- Ch. 8. Women and pleasures.

"For the first time, a content-rich survey on Renaissance women for students and the general public is available. Here, the lives of women and girls from a wide range of classes, religions, and countries in Europe take center stage. Women had a significant impact on the economy, social structures, and culture of the Renaissance, despite the constraints on their exercise of power, lack of opportunities, enforced dependence, and exclusion from politics, government, science, law, banking, and more. Women's Roles in the Renaissance examines the attitudes and practices that shaped the varied roles of women then, but also the important ways women shaped the world in which they lived. The focus is both on the ideas that circulated about women and on the difference between representations of them and their everyday life experiences. The narrative draws from a wide variety of sources on every aspect of women's lives. Numerous women are profiled, and a plethora of quotations and examples of their work provides a sense of their spirit. Many period illustrations are included to highlight the text. This will prove to be a most valuable one-volume resource on a high-interest topic."--BOOK JACKET.